Quotes from book
Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives

PlutarchOriginal title Βίοι Παράλληλοι

Plutarch's Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans, commonly called Parallel Lives or Plutarch's Lives, is a series of 48 biographies of famous men, arranged in tandem to illuminate their common moral virtues or failings, probably written at the beginning of the second century AD. The surviving Parallel Lives comprises 23 pairs of biographies, each pair consisting of one Greek and one Roman of similar destiny, such as Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, or Demosthenes and Cicero. It is a work of considerable importance, not only as a source of information about the individuals described, but also about the times in which they lived.

“Fate, however, is to all appearance more unavoidable than unexpected.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“These are the materials for reflection which history affords to those who choose to make use of them.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aemilius, sec. 5
Parallel Lives

“And this," said Cæsar, "you know, young man, is more disagreeable for me to say than to do.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aemilius, sec. 19
Parallel Lives

“Cæsar said to the soothsayer, "The ides of March are come;" who answered him calmly, "Yes, they are come, but they are not past."”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“When asked why he parted with his wife, Cæsar replied, "I wished my wife to be not so much as suspected."”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Caesar

“A remorseful change of mind renders even a noble action base, whereas the determination which is grounded on knowledge and reason cannot change even if its actions fail.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Timoleon, sec. 6
Parallel Lives

“We see that kindness or humanity has a larger field than bare justice to exercise itself in; law and justice we cannot, in the nature of things, employ on others than men; but we may extend our goodness and charity even to irrational creatures; and such acts flow from a gentle nature, as water from an abundant spring. It is doubtless the part of a kind-natured man to keep even worn-out horses and dogs, and not only take care of them when they are foals and whelps, but also when they are grown old.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Marcus Cato (Dryden translation)
Parallel Lives

“Certainly the people's insistence that their candidates should present themselves ungirt and without a tunic had nothing to do with any suspicion of bribery, for it was not until long afterwards that the abuse of buying and selling votes crept in and money began to play an important part in determining the elections. Later on, however, this process of corruption spread to the law courts and to the army, and finally, when even the sword became enslaved by the power of gold, the republic was subjected to the rule of the emperors. For it has rightly been said that the man who first offers banquets and bribes to the people is the first to destroy their liberties.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Gaius Marcius (Coriolanus) 14.2, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert, Makers of Rome: Nine Lives by Plutarch (Harmondsworth : Penguin Books 1965) ISBN 0140441581, p. 27
Parallel Lives

“For ease and speed in doing a thing do not give the work lasting solidity or exactness of beauty.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Parallel Lives, Pericles

“Indeed, to imagine that one has already arrived at perfection, argues self-conceit rather than true greatness of character.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aratus, sec. 1
Parallel Lives

“Now, king of the Lacedæmonians, take care when we come out that no one sees us weeping or doing anything unworthy of Sparta. This lies in our own power; but good or evil fortune befalls us according to the will of Heaven.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Kleomenes, sec. 22
Parallel Lives

“Perish those who suspect those men of doing or enduring anything base.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Pelopidas, sec. 18
Parallel Lives

“He has glorified himself by recording that when men were detected in any fault, they would excuse themselves by saying that they must be pardoned if they did anything amiss, for they were not Catos: and that those who endeavoured clumsily to imitate his proceedings were called left-handed Catos.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Marcus Cato, sec. 19
Parallel Lives

“With all this he showed himself so affable and simple to those under his rule, so severe and inexorable in the administration of justice, and so vigilant and careful in seeing that his orders were duly executed, that the government of Rome never was more feared or more loved in Sardinia than when he governed that island.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Marcus Cato, sec. 7
Parallel Lives

“Cleverness of speech was a quality which nearly all the young men of the time sought to attain, but Cato was singular in his keeping up the severe traditions of his ancestors in labouring with his own hands, eating a simple dinner, lighting no fire to cook his breakfast, wearing a plain dress, living in a mean house, and neither coveting superfluities nor courting their possessors.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Marcus Cato, sec. 4
Parallel Lives

“Hence, when these men praised Philip as being more eloquent, more handsome, and to crown all, able to drink more than any one else, Demosthenes sneeringly replied that the first of these qualities was excellent in a sophist, the second in a woman, and the third in a sponge, but that they were none of them such as became a king.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Demosthenes, sec. 16
Parallel Lives

“Yet, as the strongest bodies are those which can equally well support the extremes of heat and cold, so the noblest minds are those which prosperity does not render insolent and overbearing, nor ill fortune depress: and here Aemilius appears more nearly to approach absolute perfection, as, when in great misfortune and grief for his children, he showed the same dignity and firmness as after the greatest success.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Paulus Aemilius and Timeleon, sec. 2
Parallel Lives

“He said, that he never had feared what man could do to him, but always had feared Fortune, the most fickle and variable of all deities; and in the late war she had been so constantly present with him, like a favouring gale, that he expected now to meet with some reverse by way of retribution.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aemilius, sec. 36
Parallel Lives

“You, young men, be sure that you lay aside your haughty looks and vainglory in your victory, and await with humility what the future may bring forth, ever considering what form of retribution Heaven may have in store for us to set off against our present good fortune.”

Plutarch book Parallel Lives

Aemilius, sec. 27
Parallel Lives

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